


Ha Sungwoon and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

by burnintoash (funnymorning)



Series: The Terrible Day Chronicles [1]
Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Everybody loves Jisung, Jaehwan and Taehyun are annoying but Sungwoon loves them anyway, M/M, Ong tries his best to be a good wingman, Sungwoon sucks at sports
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 06:42:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11549637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funnymorning/pseuds/burnintoash
Summary: Sungwoon somehow manages to make a fool out of himself in front of the whole school, airs out petty grudges over a welcome plaque and gets a confession from Kang Daniel all in one terrible horrible no good very bad day.





	1. One Week Before

**Author's Note:**

> Me: What we are not gonna do here is fall into another rare pairing and suffer.  
> Also Me: Ah yes, as the captain of the starship Every Rarest Pairing Possible, it is my duty to write a 10k Daniel/Sungwoon College AU.

It all started, as everything usually does in Sungwoon’s life, because he had made some bad choices in friends. Although, to be fair, Sungwoon didn’t have much choice in being friends with Jaehwan, given that they are together 4 days a week in different classes, and the rest of the time at home. The only explanation for this is that Sungwoon has the worst of luck in all known universes.

 

“I don’t know how volleyball works!” Sungwoon says again in case the first sixteen times he protested fell on deaf ears. “I don’t even know the rules.”

 

“There is a ball and a net, and whoever scores more wins.” Jaehwan explains – no sarcasm detected – casually and Sungwoon resists the urge to shove Jaehwan head first into the pile of soggy fries he is currently digging into.

 

“Don’t be a smartass,” Sungwoon snaps at him instead. “How do I withdraw?”

 

“You can’t.” Jaehwan answers breezily. “The match is in one week and they don’t allow withdrawals.”

 

“I can just not show up.” Sungwoon glares at him.

 

“Do that and die.” Jaehwan threatens. There is a smudge of ketchup on his cheek and Sungwoon is feeling too vindictive now to point that out. “I barely got Jisung hyung to sign up for the music department instead of theatre. Fuck double majoring. A lot of people are joining as their non-music dept. just because they think music department sucks at sports.”

 

“And they’d be right.” Sungwoon says, and gestures around himself. “Me. The prime example. I don’t do sports. None of us do sports. That’s why we are in National University of Arts, and not Sports.”

 

“We all know you are a weak nerd,” Gunhee pipes in and Sungwoon turns his glare towards him. Gunhee just laughs and throws a bundle of tissues at Jaehwan’s face. “Wipe your face, you fucking Neanderthal.”

 

“What about Minki? Didn’t he win a silver at last year’s tennis match?” Sungwoon suggests desperately. “Ask him to join instead. Or Dongho.”

 

“Minki is gunning for gold in tennis this year so he can’t do volleyball.” Jaehwan wipes roughly at his cheek and replies. “And Dongho said he doesn’t want to.”

 

Sungwoon blinks. “And you give up just like that? While you are here steamrolling me into hell?”

 

Jaehwan snorts. “Please. Do you think I can make Dongho do anything he doesn’t want to do? Plus, he is joining wrestling. You are the only one who hasn’t signed up for anything.”

 

“Because it is stupid.” Sungwoon scrunches his face and flops back into his chair, accidentally kicking Gunhee’s legs under the table. He doesn’t apologize because it is Gunhee’s own fault for having unrealistically long legs anyway.

 

Sungwoon just doesn’t understand why they, a University of Arts as it says so with large gold letters on the main gate, need to hold a sports week for Chuseok. It is not like the kids from any sports college are putting on special arts shows for their celebration. Yes, he understands community and competition spirit and all that, but let’s be real here, all it does is generate more rivalry between the majors.

 

So yes, he has his misgivings about Chuseok Sports Week. It is not like he holds any deep hatred for it. He just thinks it is unnecessary and doesn’t care about it in the way a lot of other people do. Who is winning when Taehyun is getting up at 5 AM to train for his soccer match when Sungwoon is sleeping sound and long in his warm bed anyway?

 

The most he did at the past two years’ Sports week was showing up to cheer for his major and eat hotdogs while booing at the other majors. But this year apparently is going to be different because Jaehwan is a dick.

 

“Look, you just need to stand there in formation.” Jaehwan takes pity on him and says in placation. “Me and Jisung hyung and Minhyun will surround you like it is a Bermuda Triangle for volleyball. No ball shall come your way.”

 

“I don’t think you understand what Bermuda Triangle is.” Sungwoon sighs. “Who are we playing against anyway?”

 

“The Double Ds.” Jaehwan at least has the decency to look sheepish.

 

“Motherfucker.” Sungwoon says, with feelings. “No. I am not doing it. Taehyun is going to laugh at me for at least two years.”

 

“And that is different from your daily life how?” Gunhee laughs, and Sungwoon kicks, intentionally this time, at his legs.

 

“He is not doing volleyball.” Jaehwan tries to reassure him.

 

“That’s even worse. He is gonna turn up in the audience with a 360 camera and like 3 drones to capture my flailing in every angle possible. I am not doing it, especially in front of the Double Ds.”

 

“Can we stop calling the dance dept. Double Ds?” Gunhee whines. “Because all I can think about is Ong Seongwoo with jiggling tits and that’s not what I want my brain to be spending energy on.”

 

“Literally no one else but you think about that,” Sungwoon comments. “Maybe your brain is the problem here.”

 

Gunhee makes a show of rolling his eyes, which unfortunately just looks like he is being possessed.

 

“Why did you sign up for volleyball anyway?” Sungwoon nudges at Gunhee and asks. “Does Jaehwan have any blackmail material on you?”

 

“I signed myself up.” Gunhee says, unjustifiably proud.

 

Sungwoon snorts. “You? You tried to run after a bus for 30 seconds and asked me to call an ambulance because you think you were having a heart failure.”

 

“I am a new person now.” Gunhee waves his hand with a flourish and says.

 

“That was last weekend.” Sungwoon reminds him, but Gunhee doesn’t budge.

 

“I’ll train for a couple of days and it’d be fine. I used to play amateur volleyball back in high school. You worry about yourself.”

 

“But I don’t want to.” Sungwoon whines rather loudly, drawing attention from other tables in the café.

 

“If you don’t, we don’t have enough players and that’d be an auto forfeit.” Jaehwan says. “To the Double Ds. We’ll be automatically giving them a gold medal. Do you want that kind of wound on your pride, Sungwoon? At least, if we go down, we’ll go down swinging, like men.”

 

Gunhee purses his lips and gives a mock applaud. Sungwoon snorts.

 

“Ok, _Braveheart._ Let’ s see how much of your pride will be wounded when we lose because I have the hands-eye coordination of a blind bat.”

 

“You’ll do fine.” Jaehwan leans in and pats Sungwoon on the shoulder. “You just stand there, look pretty and let us real sportsmen do the work. We’ll win this shit.”

 

Sungwoon really, highly doubts it.

 

* * *

 

 

When Sungwoon gets back to his apartment, Taehyun is at the fridge, gulping milk straight down from carton.

 

“The milk’s gonna spoil quickly.” Sungwoon complains and shoves him out of the way to grab his yogurt cup.

 

“Not if I can drink it quicker than it can spoil.” Taehyun shrugs and puts the carton back. “What are you looking for?”

 

“My yogurt cup. I bought it last night. Did you see it?” Sungwoon is definitely sure he puts it right next to the probably-expired tuna can of questionable origin. Jaehwan does not like yogurt so he couldn’t have taken it.

 

“Erm,” A voice comes from the living room and Sungwoon lifts his head out of the fridge to see Kang Daniel’s head poking from the back of the sofa. “Wouldn’t happen to be this one, right?”

 

He lifts his hand to show the half-demolished cup of Sungwoon’s very own yuzu yogurt cup.

 

“Why…” Sungwoon mutters as Kang Daniel smacks his lips guiltily. “Taehyun hyung said I can take anything from the fridge.”

 

Sungwoon turns to glare at Taehyun, who gives him the fakest smile. “I thought there was nothing worth eating in the fridge.”

 

“Thanks,” Kang Daniel mutters from the sofa. “I’ll buy you a new one tomorrow, Sungwoon hyung.”

 

Sungwoon wonders when they even got close enough for Kang Daniel to be calling him hyung. “Forget it,” he says and closes the fridge. If he slams the fridge door a little too roughly, it’s because nothing is going his way today.

 

“Yo. I heard you signed up for volleyball.” Taehyun crosses over to sit down next to Kang Daniel on the sofa and says. “What happened?”

 

“Jaehwan,” Sungwoon says in way of explanation and doesn’t expand further even at Taehyun’s questioning eyebrows.

 

“I didn’t know you play volleyball.” Kang Daniel gives him one of his trademark smiles and says. Sungwoon is temporarily blinded by his smile that he doesn't even have the time to think if he is being sincerely curious or being condescending. “Are you any good?”

 

“Oh, the best.” Taehyun smirks with a very familiar glint in his eyes and Sungwoon temporarily considers murder. “You wouldn’t even believe.”

 

“Nice,” Kang Daniel nods enthusiastically. “Guess I’ll be playing against you. Looking forward to it, hyung.”

 

“Me too, pal.” Taehyun launches into giggly fits and says.

 

Sungwoon switches to considering murder-suicide.

 

“We are gonna go a couple of rounds on COD. You wanna join?” Taehyun asks after he calms down from the thoughts of humiliating Sungwoon.

 

“No,” Sungwoon rolls his eyes.

 

“Stop sulking.” Taehyun says. “I’ll go buy you your yogurt cup now if you want it that badly.”

 

Kang Daniel puts down his console and straightens his back.

 

“Forget it, dude. I am not sulking.” Sungwoon grits. “Anyway, I have shit to do so keep the noise down.”

 

“Roger.” Taehyun salutes and Sungwoon resists the urge to roll his eyes again and stomps over into his bedroom, ignoring the battle noises that immediately flared up from the TV.

 

You’d think Sungwoon would know better than housing with a dance major, but he knew Taehyun since they were little. Hometown acquaintances and all that. When he run into Taehyun a couple of weeks before orientation, both of them with equally doomed chances at getting an on-campus dorm because they enrolled late, Sungwoon thought he got lucky. Little did he know that Taehyun would, over the years, accumulate more and more of his annoying Double Ds friends and make their off-campus place some sort of a hangout man-cave.

 

But it is not like Sungwoon can complain because when he or Jaehwan cannot book any practice room on campus for their vocal practices, they just come back here and Taehyun had gone through about approximately 50 earplugs to this date.

 

Sungwoon throws himself onto the bed, plugging in his earphones and decides to be self-indulgent for now on the ground of today being a complete suckhole. His still pending assignment on Folk Music can wait until he is in a better mood. (Actually, it cannot because it is due day after tomorrow and Sungwoon had gone as far as typing out the title and three summary points on what he wants to write, but whatever, he’ll pull an all-nighter tomorrow night)

 

He means to only take a short nap before getting up for shower, but he must have fallen asleep for longer because when he wakes up, his left side which he slept on is numb and his phone is dead. Sungwoon blinks for a couple of seconds before realizing that the consistent knocks at the door are what woke him up.

 

“Hmm…what?” He asks groggily to a dressed up Taehyun at the door.

 

“You are already asleep?” Taehyun raises an eyebrow.

 

“What time is it?” Sungwoon sighs. “What do you want?”

 

“Little past 11, Grandpa.” Taehyun snorts. “Niel is leaving so I’m gonna go grab supper with him. You wanna join?”

 

“No.” Sungwoon tries to blink the drowsiness out of his head. “I’m gonna take a shower. Can you grab me some cup ramen when you get back though?”

 

“Sure,” Taehyun zips up his hoodie and leaves with Kang Daniel who looks back at Sungwoon to wave at him. Sungwoon just blinks blankly at him.

 

He had been sleeping for a little over 3 hours so Sungwoon decides it is enough and jumps into the shower. Time to tackle his Genre Music course assignment and regret signing up for that course because he thought it’d be easier than the Music Production course.

 

He is halfway into trying to translate and paraphrase an English online article he found into his report when someone rings the door bell.

 

Sungwoon is going to keep his promise and throw Jaehwan over the balcony if he loses his keys again.

 

He is too occupied coming up with different ways to yell at Jaehwan in the face that it catches him off guard when he pulls the door open and sees Kang Daniel standing at the door instead.

 

“Hi?” Sungwoon mumbles. “Did you forget something?”

 

“Here,” Kang Daniel smiles and pushes a plastic bag into Sungwoon’s chest. “Got you your yogurt cup back.”

 

Sungwoon looks down into the bag to see a couple of ramen cups and two yogurt cups.

 

“Taehyun hyung said you wanted some ramen as well?”

 

“You could have just given it back to Taehyun.” Sungwoon says because he doesn’t know what to say. It is not like he has ever had a complete conversation with Kang Daniel outside of the customary greetings, or even be alone with him at all. Except for that one time when Sungwoon got pissed drunk at a school festival a couple of months ago and Kang Daniel, of all people, had to bring him home.

 

“He met up with Seongwoo hyung and the rest. I think they might be out late. I just dropped by on my way back to the dorms.” Kang Daniel replies. “Also, I got you a yuzu cup and a peach cup. Their peach yogurt tastes way better.”

 

“Thanks?” Sungwoon mumbles, a little awkward.

 

“Hey, you wanna practice together?” Kang Daniel asks, out of the blue. “For the volleyball match?”

 

“Erm. No?” Sungwoon replies a little too fast, and winces at himself at how harsh the refusal comes out. “I mean, we are supposed to be competition, no?”

 

“Yeah, you are right. Of course.” Kang Daniel looks strangely _flustered_ ? Sungwoon is not sure if that is the right word for it but he looks like he is fumbling a little bit. “Anyway, gotta run. See you around, bro.”

 

“Yeah. Ok.” Sungwoon mutters after Kang Daniel’s turning back.

 

That was weird.

 

* * *

  

Kang Daniel was right though.

 

The peach yogurt tastes way better.

 

 

 


	2. The Day™

“Cheer up, little bird.” Minki sings lightly and pushes an ice-cold 100 Plus can into Sungwoon’s face. Sungwoon yelps, but says thanks anyway and gulps it down. “It’d be over in about an hour if you are lucky.”

 

“Yeah, lucky is not a word I’d choose to describe myself.”

 

“You’ll be fine.” Minki says dismissively and hands another can to Gunhee who is sporting some truly ugly neon green headband.

 

“Easy for you to say,” Sungwoon says and eyes a little jealously at the gold medal hanging around Minki’s neck.

 

Minki gives him a sly smirk and pats at his gold medal.

 

“How long are you going to wear it, dude?” Gunhee says. “The tennis match was yesterday.”

 

“As long as people keep admiring it.” Minki laughs. “Can you believe I am the first one to ever win a gold medal for the music department? On an individual competition?”

 

“Wow, how can I still not know this?” Gunhee exclaims. “After the three hundred and forty two times you mentioned it. Why don’t you just get the medal surgically attached to your forehead? It has the space anyway.”

 

“None of your ugly jealous comments can bring my mood down.” Minki snickers. “Good luck for the match anyway. Sungwoon hyung, fighting! The rest of you, good luck!”

 

“Ya!” Sungwoon yells after him as Minki bounces out of the changing room.

 

“At least he brought drinks.” Jisung says and sits down next to Sungwoon, patting him on the thigh consolingly. “Did you practice?”

 

“No,” Sungwoon snorts. “There’s no point practicing anyway. Unless you get me a lobotomy, I am not gonna improve.”

 

“That’s the kind of spirit I’d like to see just before a match starts.” Jaehwan snorts. “Thanks.”

 

“You are welcome.” Sungwoon rolls his eyes, and finishes his drink.

 

* * *

 

 

The match goes about as well as Sungwoon predicted – which is none at all.

 

He knows it was doomed the moment he steps into the court and sees Taehyun in the first row with his phone already aimed towards the game ground. 20 bucks say he is live-streaming it right now.

 

Kang Daniel – whom Sungwoon hasn’t seen since that night – gives him a greeting nod from the other side of the court. Sungwoon dumbly nods back and only barely recognizes who is who in the opposing team when the starting whistle goes off and Sungwoon launches into his short-lived but famous career of being the school’s laughing stock.

 

The self-proclaimed Bermuda Triangle of Jaehwan, Minhyun and Jisung does what they promised and try their best to block the ball from coming into Sungwoon’s way in any chance possible. Unfortunately, it also means that Sungwoon has to show his best dodge ball skills in the middle of a volleyball court by ducking and running away and jumping around the ball.

 

Because the Double Ds are actually not brainless chipmunks, five minutes into the game, they figure out the whole predicament that Sungwoon is in and that is when things go from worse to worser, because they start to aim the ball straight at Sungwoon. Jaehwan and Jisung eventually abandon their strategic positions in order to stay right in front of Sungwoon and try to hit the ball out of the way before it catches Sungwoon right in the face.

 

“Dude. DUDE GET IT!” Jisung yells as he dives in a little too late to hit the ball that is coming straight to Sungwoon. Sungwoon blanks out, forgets what a volleyball is and jumps to catch the ball right into his arms until Gunhee’s disbelieved laughter echoes into his ear and he realizes that he is, in fact, holding the ball to his chest like a newborn baby instead of hitting it back to the other side.

 

Even the referee seems like she is holding in her laughter as she whistles and gives a point to the Double Ds, who instead of celebrating, are just laughing into their hands. Kang Daniel catches his eyes as Sungwoon looks over at them and holds two thumbs up at him. Sungwoon has never wanted the ground to swallow him more.

 

The whole audience is having the time of their lives from the sounds of it by the time it eventually comes to Sungwoon’s turn to serve. He is pretty sure he heard a ‘Go Sungwoon!’ in a Taehyun’s voice somewhere.

 

Sungwoon tries. He really did but he knows he fucked up when his right hand comes in contact with empty air as his left hand throws the ball into the air. Ong Seongwoo, who is right in front of Sungwoon on the other side of the net, crouched in a defense position, falls to his knees in laughter as soon as the ball Sungwoon is supposed to serve falls to the ground and bounces tragically for a while. Jisung claps Sungwoon in the back, hiding his face into Sungwoon’s neck, his laughter ringing in Sungwoon’ ears, and Sungwoon starts thinking how difficult it would be to change one’s identity and move countries.

 

Needless to say, they lose the game.

 

“But it was quality entertainment, bro.” Taehyun says as he comes over onto the court after the game is officially over and Sungwoon is sitting in his own misery on the court ground. “Worth it.”

 

“Get lost. Go and congratulate your own major.” Sungwoon grunts and lies down next to Jisung.

 

“At least we lost by 25-16. That’s way better than I estimated.” Jisung says sagely.

 

“C’mon.” Taehyun nudges into Sungwoon’s side with his sneakers. “Get up. Let’s go have pizza for dinner. All of us haven’t hanged out in a while.”

 

“No,” Sungwoon pouts. “I am not going out in public for at least twenty years. Are there videos on instagram already?”

 

“My video already has about over 200 views.” Taehyun says and Sungwoon groans. “Please. You are friends with like half of the school and everyone just think you are cute. The power of a pretty face. I already got two junior girls commenting how brave you are to sacrifice for your major like this.”

 

“My impact.” Jaehwan says and holds up a palm for Sungwoon to high five. Sungwoon ignores him.

 

“Whatever, man.” Gunhee says and stretches. “Let’s go for that pizza. I am starving.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Woo, it is the man of the hour,” Eunki exclaims as soon as Sungwoon steps food into the pizza joint, following Jisung.

 

It comes as no surprise that he’d run into the Double Ds here since this is the closet and cheapest restaurant around their school, but Sungwoon still gives an annoyed sigh.

 

“Shut up, Eunki.” He yells back anyway because Eunki is one of the few dance majors he is close to and he knows at least when it is Eunki who is making fun of him, it’s in good spirit. “I didn’t recall you scoring any point.”

 

“Spell-bounded by the show you were putting on,” Eunki retorts back immediately as Ong Seongwoo leans over to point at Taehyun. “You ditch us to go out with _them_?”

 

“Shut your face,” Jisung pushes through Sungwoon and skips over to the table where the dance majors are sitting. “He hangs out with you losers everyday anyway.”

 

“Ironic use of the word _losers_ ,” Seongwoo replies but he is also laughing and handing a pizza slice to Jisung. Right. Jisung is friends with the whole world, possibly from the night security guards at the main gate to the third removed cousin of the school Dean.

 

Jisung is already seated at the Double Ds’ table across Jinwoo, and Gunhee is already pulling free chairs around to crowd around the table. Sungwoon sighs internally as Jaehwan groans next to his ear.

 

“We’re sitting with them?”

 

“This again?” Taehyun flicks Jaehwan in the arm and says. “People are gonna start thinking we have actual beef with your major.”

 

“My pride was wounded.” Jaehwan whines. “Like, just 20 minutes ago.”

 

“Your own damn fault,” Sungwoon rolls his eyes and crosses over to sit down next to Jisung. Sure, he finds most of dance major kids annoying but he is a big boy. He can handle one meal with them.

 

Except Ong Seongwoo dashes his way across the table and into the chair Sungwoon pulls out, planting himself firmly into it before Sungwoon can even say _what are you doing._

 

“Sorry,” he turns his head up and says, sounding anything but sorry. “I want to talk to Jisung hyung. Why don’t you take my seat instead?”

 

“Ok…” Sungwoon mumbles, and walks around the table to sit at the chair that Seongwoo vacated, right between Eunki and Kang Daniel.

 

“Yo,” Kang Daniel lifts his ketch-up stained fingers in lieu of a hello. Sungwoon just gives him a slight nod back and sits down.

 

“Good game, bro.” Eunki snickers and Sungwoon shoves a piece of garlic breadstick in front of him into Eunki’s mouth.

 

“Shut up.”

 

“I thought it was really brave of you.” Kang Daniel pipes in. “I mean, I would rather die than stand inside a game I don’t know anything about.”

 

Sungwoon turns to say something biting back to him but Jaehwan is quicker. “Lay off him, man. We forced him to join because we didn’t have enough people to stand in.”

 

“By we, you mean _you alone.”_ Jisung mutters.

 

Jaehwan ignores him. “Stop being a dick to Sungwoon hyung.”

 

“I wasn’t…” Kang Daniel stutters. “Did you think I … No, I mean.”

 

“Smooth, Niel. Real smooth.” Ong Seongwoo pipes in, but when Sungwoon looks over at him to ask what he means, he is engrossed in a sudden conversation with a perplexed Gunhee about where he got his wristband.

 

“They gave it out to every match participant….” Gunhee trails off unsurely. “You are wearing the exact same one right now.”

 

“Right.” Ong Seongwoo replies, almost manically. “Ha. Funny, isn’t it?”

 

“Erm. No?” Gunhee answers and raises an eyebrow at Sungwoon. Sungwoon just shrugs back.

 

“Can you reach the pizza? Let me get you some.” Kang Daniel asks suddenly and takes Sungwoon’s empty plate before he can answer, putting a slice from the tray in the middle.

 

“Thanks…” Sungwoon says and takes his plates from Kang Daniel’s hand, but it is snatched away once again.

 

“Wait. I forgot you don’t like pineapples on your pizza. Here, take the pepperoni one instead.”

 

Gunhee gives him a WTF face from across the table, which Sungwoon is sure is present on his own face as well. How does Kang Daniel even know that Sungwoon can’t stand pineapples on his pizza? He doesn’t remember sharing a meal with him before or having a long enough conversation to discuss about their pizza preferences.

 

Maybe Taehyun told him, but Sungwoon doubts Kang Daniel has enough interest in him for Taehyun to be holding a Sungwoon trivia facts session with him. Maybe it was just a throwaway comment from Taehyun like _‘wow I can only eat Hawaiian with you guys because Sungwoon is an uptight ass who doesn’t want a fruit on his pizza’_ and Kang Daniel is just weird enough to remember it.

 

Sungwoon says thanks again and grabs the plate a little more firmly this time. Kang Daniel says “You are welcome” back with an ending chuckle like Sungwoon’s customary gratitude is somehow … funny to him.

 

“You kids wanna go clubbing after this?” Ong Seongwoo stretches languidly and says. “You,” he snaps at Jinwoo when the guy raises his hand enthusiastically. “and Taehyun are not allowed to join on the ground that your soccer match is at tomorrow 10 AM.”

 

“You are not the boss of us the last time I checked.” Jinwoo snorts.

 

“No I am not, but that won’t stop me from kicking your ass if you lose to the Film major kids on soccer.”

 

“Please,” Taehyun says from the other end of the table. “It’s the ‘Film major’. They spent half their times crouched in the editing room. We can win this shit. No sweat.”

 

“This is why everyone hates you guys.” Minhyun grumbles.

 

“As long as you love me, sweetie pie.” Taehyun bears his teeth.

 

“I despise you.”

 

“Well, it can’t be helped,” Ong Seongwoo says smugly. “Not our fault that we are blessed with both good looks and athletic skills. I mean, a few of us are unfortunately kind of losers,” he points at Kang Daniel who throws up a middle finger in return, “because it is just statistically impossible for all of us to be perfect, but that is life.”

 

“Wow, thank you for finding time in your schedule for us lowly people,” Jisung says, complete with a flourished bow. “We are grateful that you’d find time for us and that you’d treat us with this delicious meal even though we are not worthy.”

 

“Fuck off…” Ong Seongwoo starts but is drowned out by the sudden chanting of his name across the table. Sungwoon even puts down his pizza to join in.

 

“Urgh. Fine.” Ong Seongwoo grunts. “I’ll just go broke and eat a ramen cup every two days for the rest of the month to feed you peasants.”

 

“Ong Seongwoo! Ong Seongwoo! Ong Seongwoo!” Kang Daniel starts the chant again and Ong Seongwoo sighs long-sufferingly before giving in and dancing along to the chant.

 

Sungwoon snickers and leans across the table to get at the cheese shaker but Kang Daniel (and seriously, screw him and his unfairly long limbs) reaches out first and hands it over to him.

 

“It’s fun, isn’t it?” Kang Daniel says and Sungwoon looks up at him in question. “Us hanging out, I mean. We never get to properly hang out even though I am over at your place like 3 days a week.”

 

“Right,” Sungwoon answers and shakes the cheese crumbs aggressively onto his pizza. “Didn’t think you’d want to willingly hang out with a gay-ass dude.”

 

“A what now?” Kang Daniel blinks as Ong Seongwoo draws out a very long “Ermmmmmm….”

 

Sungwoon realizes that everyone at the table is suddenly focusing on them, so he just swallows down his pizza and says, “Forget it.”

 

“You called him gay-ass?” Jisung asks. “For real, Daniel?”

 

“No, I didn’t.” Kang Daniel denies vehemently.

 

“Wow, Niel.” Ong Seongwoo slow claps. “Every time I think you can’t fuck up any more…”

 

“Shut up,” Kang Daniel says, and turns back to Sungwoon. “I never called you that.”

 

“You did though.” Sungwoon snaps back. “Start of my second year first semester.”

 

“Ooh, he came with receipts.” Eunki laughs, with no mirth.

 

“That was like 15 months back. I didn’t even know you back then.” Kang Daniel splutters.

 

“You were over at our house when I first moved in and you said to Taehyun _bro what kind of countrified gay ass dude do you live with._ I overheard it from my room.” Sungwoon grunts. It is not like he wants to bring it up but Kang Daniel is insisting it never happened when it clearly did.

 

Taehyun whistles from the other end of the table.

 

“I … did? Did I?” Kang Daniel turns his head around to face Taehyun in question.

 

“I think you were talking about the ugl…., I mean, the very vibrant welcome plaque Sungwoon insisted on hanging over the front door.”

 

Ong Seongwoo coughs from across Sungwoon, and Sungwoon flushes a little.

 

“It was hand knit by my grandma.” He grumbles. Yes, he is fully aware that he sounds like a petulant child throwing a tantrum over something petty, but he was pretty mad back then. He just didn’t want to cause a scene when he just moved in so he ignored it, and moved on. Well, up until now anyway. “And just because it has a lot of rainbows and flowers doesn’t mean it is gay? Like, that is a very ignorant thing to say.”

 

“I am sorry.” Kang Daniel says, and Sungwoon is not expecting an outright apology so he cannot quickly come up with an appropriate reaction other than staring at the guy. “I didn’t know you heard it. No, sorry. That’s not right. I mean, doesn’t matter if you heard it or not. I shouldn’t have said it in the first place. You are right. It’s a very ignorant thing to say about someone I didn’t know. I mean, it is not an excuse but I was just too used to, you know, talking trash with Taehyun hyung that I probably didn’t think things through. I really am sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  
  
“O...k?” Sungwoon blinks. He never really thought about Kang Daniel apologizing to him for their less than impressive first impression because he never imagined the day would come where Sungwoon would confront him about this. And to be fair, even if he had thought about it, he’d have thought Kang Daniel would either dismiss it or tell Sungwoon to stop being uptight. Not an actual apology. “I mean, it doesn’t matter anyway. Like you said, it was way back then.”

 

“Yeah, but I am still sorry.”

 

“Ok. Fine. Forgiven, dude. Done and dusted.” Sungwoon says, becoming acutely aware of how quiet and awkward the whole atmosphere has become. Minhyun has been staring at his empty water glass and Jisung has been nibbling at his tiny leftover breadstick for the entirety of this conversation. Even Ong Seongwoo is quiet and looking around like he doesn’t know what to do with his head.  


 

“I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Sungwoon mutters under his breath.  


 

“No, no. I am glad you did.” Kang Daniel says. “I’m glad we could, you know, clear the air.”  
  


"Right.” Sungwoon nods. “We did. The air is clear now.”  


 

“Oh my god, do something, Jisung hyung.” Ong Seongwoo blurts out. “I am allergic to this much awkwardness. I’m gonna break out in hives if you cannot find another subject we can talk about in 5 seconds.”  


 

“God, please.” Sungwoon sighs as well, covering his hand over his face. He should have just sat and smiled and nodded for the next half hour before he can excuse himself out of dinner instead of spiraling down into … this.

 

Kang Daniel laughs awkwardly next to him.

  
Sungwoon really cannot wait for this day to be over.

 

* * *

  
  
“Thanks for the dinner, man.” Sungwoon says to Seongwoo as they exits the restaurant, Seongwoo making crying faces at his now empty wallet.

  
  
“You are welcome.” Seongwoo sighs. “I am sorry Daniel is a jerk.”

  
  
“I am not a jerk!” Daniel protests from somewhere in the back crowd.

  
  
“No, it is fine.” Sungwoon shakes his head and parts his way. “I’ll catch you later.”

  
  
Taehyun and Jaehwan are nowhere close by despite the fact that they should be sharing an Uber back home.

  
  
“Yo, hey, Sungwoon hyung.” Kang Daniel runs after him, and catches him by his jacket sleeve and Sungwoon turns to look at him. “Can I talk to you for a while?”

 

“About what?”

 

“If we are good, I mean. I just want to check.”

 

Wow, when will this ever even end?

 

“We are good.” Sungwoon pulls his hand back and says. “Just … drop it.”

 

“You don’t really look like it.” Kang Daniel mumbles. “I mean, your face still has that … sulky look.”

 

Sungwoon splutters. “This is my normal face. I do not sulk.”

 

“Right,” Kang Daniel laughs and Sungwoon can’t figure out if it is geniue or not. “Is that.. I mean, is that incident the reason why you are always kind of stand-offish with me?”

 

“I am not stand-offish with you.” Sungwoon flat out lies.

 

“If you had let me known earlier, I’d have apologized.” Kang Daniel adds on. “Instead of you being mad at me for what? 2 years?”

 

Sungwoon sighs. He was never properly angry anyway. He just never had a good first impression on Kang Daniel, and things just sort of snowballed from there. Kang Daniel and his squad™ (barring Taehyun, but only sometimes) just annoy him. Not for any valid reason that Sungwoon would say out loud, but you know, little things like them coming over to play but not bothering to throw out the trash, or even when they help clean up, they never put back the vacuum cleaner or the mop back where they belong. Or Sungwoon having to burn through too much toilet rolls because of them, or laughter bubbling at 12 in the night loud enough to penetrate through Sungwoon’s earphones. Just little small things that pile up over the time and ending up in Sungwoon not being able to warm up to any of them despite them being best friends with Sungwoon’s housemate. Especially Kang Daniel, who Sungwoon sometimes catches looking at him like he is trying to see Sungwoon’s inner thoughts, as if he is trying to figure out if Sungwoon really is the gay-ass flamboyant house mate he talked to Taehyun about.

 

“It’s fine. I already chalked it up to you being … well, you. It’s just a typical macho frat dude thing to say.”

  
  
“But I am not.” Kang Daniel replies. “I am not even in a frat. I don’t want you to think of me like that.”

 

“Why would it matter what I think of you?” Sungwoon mutters, but Kang Daniel doesn’t hear him and rolls on.

  
  
“I know it probably came across as at worst homophobic or at best ignorant to you but I didn’t mean it in an offensive way. I mean…” Kang Daniel sighs. “Me too. I like guys too, and Taehyun hyung already knew about it so I just trash talked like I usually did because I thought we were alone.”  
  
  
  
“Did you just … come out? To me?” Sungwoon stutters before something else hits him. “Wait the fuck up. What do you mean _me too_?”

  
  
Sungwoon is out to exactly 3 people in this school and none of them would betray him in this way. Not even Jaehwan at his most vindictive hours. So, how the fuck?

  
  
“You are gay, right? Or bi? At least, you like guys. You told me yourself.”

  
  
“No, I didn’t. Why would I ever even tell you that?” Sungwoon asks in shock.

  
  
“Yeah,” Kang Daniel gives a small laugh and kicks his toes into the dirt on the road with his sneakers. “I had been wondering if you’ve actually forgotten or just pretending to, but seems like you really forgot.”

  
  
“Forgot about what?”

  
  
“That night, when I brought you home from Color Night because you were pissed drunk. You told me that night.”

  
  
“I told you that I am gay when I was drunk?” Sungwoon blinks. “That doesn’t even make sense.” Sure, he doesn’t remember anything that happened on that night after Taehyun handed him his fifth Soju bomb, but it seems unlikely that the drunk him would be going around telling strangers about his sexuality. “Why would I tell you that I am gay?”

  
  
“Well…” Kang Daniel starts. “You didn’t say in exact words that you were gay, but you know, you implied.”

  
  
“How??”

  
“You told me that I was annoying.” Ok, that much is true. “Like pineapples on your pizza. You told me my face and my height and my laugh, everything is annoying.”

  
  
That is also true. “I still don’t…”

  
  
“And then you told me that you want to shut my annoying face up by kissing me. Then you kept asking me if I want to kiss you back.”

  
  
“Shut the fuck up. I did not!” Sungwoon squeaks. There is no way he could have said that – not even his drunk self.

  
  
“The Uber driver heard you!” Kang Daniel replies huffily. “He is our witness.”

  
  
“Even if I said that,” Sungwoon grits through his teeth. “I am not saying I did, but even if I did, I was so far gone. I had like three soju bottles worth of alcohol in my brain. Why would you believe everything I said?”

  
  
“Well, it turned out you really didn’t like pineapples on pizza, didn’t it? Plus, you were kind of avoiding me after that day and you know, flushed in the face and what not when you did see me, so I assumed you do like me and was just feeling awkward.”

  
  
“I do not. Like you.” Sungwoon yelps. “It was just awkward because I was embarrassed that you had to take me home.”

  
  
“Well, you were not embarrassed when you were clinging to me all the way home.”

  
  
“Nope,” Sungwoon shakes his head. “I do not take responsibility for anything my drunk _and stupid_ persona has said. Let us just both drop this.” Oh god, please. “And move on.”

  
  
“I can’t though,” Kang Daniel replies. “You were wasted that night so I didn’t answer, but the answer is yes, I do want to kiss you back.”

  
  
This isn’t happening. This whole day is Sungwoon’s version of the darkest timeline.

  
  
“I was looking for a good chance to bring it back up, you know, let you ask me out naturally, but it seems like you really had forgotten it all.”

  
  
“I am not gonna ask you out, naturally or not, what the fuck.” Sungwoon stammers.

  
  
“Fine.” Did Kang Daniel just … pout? “I’ll do all the work then. Go out with me.”

  
  
“Erm. No?” Sungwoon splutters. “I am going home. Alone.”

  
  
“Do you need to time to think about it?” Kang Daniel asks.

  
  
“There is nothing to think about.” Sungwoon tightens the hold on his backpack. “Good night. And do me a favor and forget everything I might or might not have said that night, dude. Seriously. I probably didn’t mean it.”

  
  
“We’ll see.” Kang Daniel smiles, but Sungwoon is already backtracking his way to the main road. The priority here is to retreat before he can regroup.

  
  
And because he cannot help it, Sungwoon has to look back once he is at the corner of the street, and Kang Daniel is still standing there, waving at him with a leisurely smile.  
  
  
  
Yeah, so, apparently, he gives a drunken confession to Kang Daniel. No big deal. First, he’ll just ask Taehyun to tell Daniel that Sungwoon is kind of clingy when he is drunk, and no, he didn’t mean anything serious. Taehyun will probably butt his nose in but nothing Sungwoon cannot handle. And second, become a teetotaler from now on because wow, people are right when they say not to trust even yourself. Where does this ‘kissing-Daniel’ thing even come from? Because Sungwoon, for sure, has never thought of Kang Daniel that way. Except for the few times when he somehow ends up dreaming of Daniel’s arms around him or his (very annoying) laughter right next to his ears and waking up feeling all stupidly mushy inside – but that must only be because Sungwoon hasn’t had a boyfriend in years and everyone with functioning eyes can see Kang Daniel is hot in that grating college dude bro way, ok? It really is not something to write home about.

 

Yeah, so he’ll just deploy some aggressive avoidance mechanism when it comes to Kang Daniel, and everything should return to status quo soon.

  
  
And if everything fails, he’ll just, I don’t know, fake his death and migrate to Canada or something.

  
  
Sungwoon is so immersed in this whole ‘I-drunkenly-confessed-to-you’ thing that it doesn’t properly register to him that Kang Daniel said _‘I want to kiss you back’_. Not until much later when he is getting out of the shower and standing in front of the mirror. Only then the full weight of Kang Daniel’s words hit him like a freight train.

  
   
_“Go out with me?”_

  
  
Sungwoon’s hand involuntarily goes over his stupid beating heart as it betrays him and starts doing … things in his chest. “This is not happening,” he says to his reflection in the mirror, who just stares back at him in that gloomy confused face.

  
  
It has been a terrible, terrible day.


	3. The Day After

“Sorry.” Sungwoon mutters and pushes his way through the narrow aisle to where Jaehwan is seated. People sitting make irritated noises, and Sungwoon silently curses Jaehwan for getting seats right smack in the middle of the row and also at himself for sleeping through the alarm. He just could not sleep well last night, not because he was thinking about Kang Daniel – absolutely not. It is just heartburn from the pizza or something.

 

“Dude, what the hell.” Jaehwan hisses as Sungwoon slides down into the vacant seat next to him. “It’s almost half time.”

 

“Sorry,” Sungwoon mumbles. “I was about to get up when you left but I fell back asleep. How are they doing?”

 

“The film major kids are putting a serious defense.” Jaehwan says and nods towards the football field. “It’s still nil to nil, but I hope the film kids score first and Taehyun cries.”

 

“Your concept of friendship is amazing.” Sungwoon snorts and leans over to grab the soda cup from the cup holder on Jaehwan’s seat.

 

“Urgh. You already drank it all?” Sungwoon sighs, shaking at the empty cup.

 

“You snooze, you lose, man.” Jaehwan answers without looking at him. “You could have just bought something on the way in.”

 

“I was in a hurry.” Sungwoon pouts and narrows his eyes until he can find the number 8 on the field, a panting Taehyun running in circles on the middle field. “If Taehyun loses, we are never gonna hear the end of it.”

 

“Same thing goes if he wins,” Jaehwan replies, and touché.

 

Nobody wins or loses up until the halftime whistle blows. Sungwoon just hopes this doesn’t go into over time because he has a group meeting after this.

 

“You wanna go buy food?” Jaehwan asks, standing up and stretching as people around them starts to move.

 

“The queue would kill us.” Sungwoon shakes his head. “I’m good.”

 

“Cool. Imma go take a dump.”

 

“Nobody asked!” Sungwoon yells after Jaehwan as he skips up the stairs. Seriously.

 

Sungwoon takes a picture of the 0-0 scoreboard and uploads it to instagram, thinking about a clever enough caption to tag Taehyun when someone who is much larger than Jaehwan slides into Jaehwan’s vacated seat.

 

“Popcorn?” Kang Daniel asks, shoving a popcorn box into Sungwoon’s chest.

 

“Are you stalking me?”

 

“Dance major,” Daniel points to the scoreboard where the major names are written. “I am morally obligated to be here.”

 

“Not here in this seat.” Sungwoon mumbles.

 

“C’mon. Take the popcorn. Sweet and salted. Mixed 3:2 ratio.”

 

Sungwoon narrows his eyes. “Did I tell you my popcorn preferences as well?”

 

“No, I asked Taehyun hyung.”

 

Sungwoon has no reply to that. Daniel keeps shaking the popcorn box in front of his face, so he sighs and takes it off his hand.

 

Daniel smiles, wide and big and leans into the seat. “You have really weird eating habits, you know that?”

 

“Is that how you woo people?” Sungwoon snorts. “By insulting them?”

 

“Is that what you think I should be doing?” Daniel turns his head so he is completely facing Sungwoon, and smirks. “Wooing you?”

 

“Urgh. No.” Stupid mouth connected to stupid brain “Forget it. Just leave. Go.”

 

“Sure, as long as you pay me that 4,000 won for popcorn.”

 

“What the hell,” Sungwoon chokes, and pushes the popcorn box back into Daniel’s chest.

 

“Kidding. I am kidding.” Daniel laughs, the smile lines on his face getting more prominent. “You are cute when you are flustered.”

 

“I am not…” Sungwoon tries to defend himself but is cut off by the arrival of a confused Jaehwan.

 

“Yo.” Jaehwan starts, looking back and forth between them. “What’s up?”

 

“What’s up, man?” Daniel stands up and says nonchalantly. “I was just saying hi.”

 

“Righttttt…”

 

“Anyway, enjoy the game. I’ll see you guys later.”

 

Jaehwan stares after Daniel’s retreating back. “What’s with you two?” He turns to ask Sungwoon.

 

“Nothing.” Sungwoon replies a little too quickly. “He was just stopping by.”

 

“Uh-huh.” Jaehwan says. “And that popcorn box just materialized out of thin air in your lap, is it?”

 

“Whatever. Sit down.” Sungwoon grunts. “They should be starting back soon.”

 

“So, he …” Jaehwan starts, but Kang Daniel is here again, suddenly waving a water bottle in front of Sungwoon’s face.

 

“I got you water as well. I forgot.” He says with a bright smile, paying no attention to Jaehwan who is staring at him, slacked jaw. “See ya.”

 

“Dude…” Jaehwan hisses when Daniel disappears as suddenly as he appeared. “You cannot date a dance major.”

 

“Nobody is dating anybody.” Sungwoon hisses. “Here, eat the popcorn and shut the fuck up. The match is starting.”

 

“We’ll talk about this.” Jaehwan says but Sungwoon pretends not to hear him and throws a few popcorn pieces into his mouth.

 

He wonders if the popcorn stall has changed their recipe because it tastes exceptionally _sweet_ today.


	4. The Week After

Sungwoon sighs – a little dramatically, to his shame – in front of the lecture hall. Today is Tuesday and Tuesdays mean Stage Expressions and Emotions class, which is a core class shared across majors and in this particular case, a class he shared with Daniel and part of his squad.

 

The sports week is over and Sungwoon, thankfully, run into Daniel for only a couple of times, all of which were among their different groups of friends, and Kang Daniel was surprisingly well-behaved. No flirtatiousness or any obvious reaction at all. Sungwoon feels like he was the one being awkward and weird in all of those encounters.

 

Maybe today will be the same given that they are in a class and Sungwoon will have minimal exposure to the embarrassing atmosphere. Sungwoon grits himself and pushes the door open.

 

It is only left with about 5 minutes before the class time so the lecture hall is almost full, but Sungwoon does not see Kang Daniel anywhere. Not that he was looking. It is just, Daniel is hard to miss given that he usually sits in the middle front row surrounded by his minions, whom by the way, are already seated there. Ong Seongwoo is even giving Sungwoon a wave.

 

Sungwoon nods back and climbs up to the back row where he normally sits. Maybe Daniel also does not want to be awkward and is actively avoiding Sungwoon. Or maybe he is sick because from what Sungwoon knows, he was in like five different matches last week since he is an annoying over achiever. Or maybe Sungwoon should just stop thinking about him.

 

Of course, speaking of (thinking of?) the devil, Kang Daniel bursts into the lecture hall with a skip, seconds before the professor walks in and happily skips his way up the stairs, past where his friends are sitting, and slides into the seat right next to Sungwoon.

 

Well, too much for him actively avoiding Sungwoon.

 

“Go sit with your friends,” Sungwoon says, but Daniel just puts down his backpack with a smile and pushes the cup of coffee he is holding in his hand.

 

“Your coffee.”

 

“Huh?” Sungwoon says intelligently, staring at the small coffee cup in front of him.

 

“You always come to class with a coffee but I was behind you earlier in the hallway and I didn’t see one, so I went and got one.”

 

Sungwoon was running a little behind time this morning so he didn’t want to stop over at his usual coffee shop.

 

“You went to the coffee shop all the way across campus?”

 

“Well, duh.” Daniel answers easily like it is the most obvious thing. “In case you didn’t notice, I run pretty fast. Half marathon winner right here, baby.”

 

Urgh. Sungwoon groans internally but reaches his hand for the coffee. He is weak for his morning coffee, ok? Sue him.

 

“Oh wait.” Daniel says and leans down to open his back pack. “Because I am not actually a stalker, I don’t know how you take your coffee, so here.” He puts down about roughly a dozen sugar packets onto the table.

 

“Jesus,” Sungwoon mutters. “Did you rob the entire coffee shop for these?”

 

“You always eat things sweet,” Daniel says and shrugs. Sungwoon doesn’t bother to ask how he noticed.

 

“Four packets,” Daniel says after Sungwoon finishes pouring enough amount of sugar into his coffee. “Noted.”

 

“Why are you like this, dude?” Sungwoon sighs. “You were a lot quieter before.”

 

“That was because I thought you’d make the first move and you know, I don’t want to discourage you or something. But now that I know you won’t, I am all full-forced. You can’t turn me off once you turned me on.” He stops and gives a ridiculously childish giggle. “You turn me on.”

 

“For fuck’s sake.” Sungwoon groans and hides his face in his arms.

 

* * *

 

Daniel is thankfully tranquil all the way through the lecture, although it doesn’t help much with Sungwoon’s concentration anyway. He is fully aware of how close Daniel is sitting next to him on the bench and wonders if Daniel is doing this on purpose or if Sungwoon is just being extra sensitive.

 

When the lecture finally wraps up, Sungwoon tries to pack and run, but Daniel is leaning his head on his hand with his elbow on the table, effectively blocking Sungwoon’s way.

 

“Wanna go see a movie tonight?” He asks, wiggling his eyebrows comically. “We can watch a horror movie and I’ll let you hold my hand through scary scenes.”

 

“No, dude.” Sungwoon groans. “Seriously, get out of the way. You are so annoying.”

 

“Am I really that annoying to you?” He asks, the smile on his face dissolving.

 

“Erm, yeah.” Sungwoon raises an eyebrow. “That’s what I’ve been saying this whole time.”

 

“Look,” Daniel says, all frivolity gone from his face. “Maybe you think I am being childish or too pushy or whatever, but I really do like you. I want to go out with you on dates and you know, hold your hand and buy you food and stuff.”

 

Sungwoon swallows at his suddenly dry throat. Why is his damn heart starting to beat out of his chest again?

 

“And I thought you liked me too because you know, you told me yourself that.” Daniel sighs. “But in case I am wrong and I am just aggravating you, just tell me up front. That you don’t like me and don’t want me anywhere around. I am not that much of a jerk. I won’t pester you if you really don’t want me to.”

 

“I…” Sungwoon stutters and looks around the class, but thankfully, no one is around them and the few students left in the hall are only packing up their stuff to leave.

 

“Do you want to go out with me?” Daniel asks. “I am asking sincerely.”

 

“I… I don’t know.” Sungwoon replies. There is a buzzing in his ears, and he feels the back of his neck heating up. “Can I think about it?”

 

“Yeah, ok.” Daniel says, and gives a small smile. “At least it is not an outright no.”

 

“Yeah, well. I need to go.” Sungwoon says. “Things to do.”

 

“Alright. See you around.”

 

Sungwoon all but runs from the lecture hall.

 

Wow. Stupid. Stupid. And also stupid.

 

Why did he even say he needs to think about it? There is nothing to think about it, right? Sungwoon does not like Daniel or want to go out with him or have Daniel hold his hand and buy him food. No.

 

He doesn’t.

 

Right?

 

* * *

 

He goes straight back home because education obviously is not as important when he is having an early mid life crisis.

 

Taehyun is playing COD alone on the couch and doesn’t even respond when Sungwoon calls him so Sungwoon resorts to last measures and pulls the plug of the TV.

 

“I am gonna kick your fucking ass.” Taehyun yells at him, hands frozen over the game console.

 

“Dude, Kang Daniel says he likes me.” Sungwoon doesn’t let him finish his ranting and says. “Like, like me. Like, boyfriend kind of liking. He says he wants to go out with me.”

 

“Ok?” Taehyun raises an eyebrow. “Congrats?”

 

“Why aren’t you surprised?” Sungwoon asks. “Does it even make sense? Me and Kang Daniel.”

 

“Dude, the kid has an elephant sized crush on you since like last year. I thought you knew but just pretending not to since you are a giant dick to him. Wow, that sounds gayer than I intended it to.”

 

“I didn’t know!” Sungwoon squeaks. “I wasn’t pretending anything. I just don’t like him.”

 

“Well, there you go then. Tell him you don’t like him and move on. Kid has like about a hundred guys and girls falling all over him. He’ll move on. Actually, I don’t even know why he’s into you.”

 

“Thanks, really.” Sungwoon snorts.

 

“Yeah. Yeah. Whatever.” Taehyun waves a hand at him. “Go break my junior’s heart. I’ll dedicate the next month to helping him get over his heartbreak with plenty of alcohol.”

 

“I don’t want to though.” Sungwoon whines and Taehyun narrows his eyes at him. “I mean, he is … nice to me.”

 

 _Wow, he bought you food two times and you already think he is nice to him._ The little voice in Sungwoon’s head pipes up but Sungwoon tells it to put a lid on it.

 

“Do you see me wearing a diaper and running around shooting arrows, Sungwoon?” Taehyun asks, face stern. “You don’t, do you? That’s because I am not cupid and I am not here to sort your heart matters out. You are an adult. Make a decision. And, plug my TV back in.”

 

“You are the worst best friend ever.” Sungwoon pouts and turns the TV back on so that Taehyun can senselessly shoots at more enemies while Sungwoon sits and ponders in his misery next to him, Kang Daniel’s ‘ _I like you_ ’ ringing incessantly in his ears.


	5. Two Weeks After

Sungwoon runs into Daniel on Monday in the middle of campus, six days after Sungwoon tries and eventually fails to make himself convinced that he doesn’t want Kang Daniel around. Daniel hasn’t shown his face around or texted or called. Sungwoon doesn’t even know if he has Sungwoon’s number. And the fact that it actually hurts him a little bit, that is what is killing Sungwoon.

 

“Hey,” Daniel greets him, smile bright as ever, as if they are your regular close friends just saying hi to one another.

 

“Hi,” Sungwoon mutters back.

 

“What are you up to?” Daniel asks, cool as ever.

 

“Dinner.” Sungwoon points towards the school cafeteria.

 

“Yeah? Me too.” Daniel grins. “Wanna go together?”

 

“To dinner?” Sungwoon blurts out. “Like a dinner date?”

 

“Erm… I was just asking to join me and Jisung hyung at dinner because he is waiting for me,” Daniel says. _Shit_. “But, we can definitely do a dinner date if you want to.”

 

“No. No, if Jisung hyung is waiting…” Sungwoon splutters.

 

“He’ll be fine. He probably knows everyone in the cafeteria.” Daniel interrupts him. “No take back. You said dinner date. Let’s do it.”

 

Sungwoon shuffles from side to side, feeling a little nervous under Daniel’s gaze. Daniel is smiling his trademark smile again, all bright and stupid. And Sungwoon’s heart is doing that thing again where it just keeps beating and beating against his chest cage like it wants to leap right into Daniel’s hand.

 

“Ok.” He says.

 

Daniel freezes and Sungwoon feels like this is the first time he has ever seen Kang Daniel not being 100% composed. “I wasn’t expecting a yes.”

 

“Well,” Sungwoon replies. He doesn’t know what to do with his hands so he just tries to push them into his jean pockets, but he cannot seem to find the damn things. “I thought about it.”

 

“And?” Daniel grins.

 

“I said ok, didn’t I?” Sungwoon says back, and Daniel suddenly reaches forward to take his hand – Sungwoon is not sure if it is because he notices Sungwoon being useless with them or just because he wants to.

 

“Wow, yes, ok.” Daniel says, interlacing his fingers with Sungwoon and Sungwoon can feel the warmness from Daniel’s fingers spreading through his palm. “Let’s go for dinner. What do you want? Pizza? Korean food? Chinese? I know this really good Thai place in …”

 

“Chinese is fine.” Sungwoon interrupts him. Daniel looks equally excited and nervous and wow, Sungwoon makes him like this, and not to sound gross, but there is a new feeling of happiness spreading across his spine. “I like Chinese food.”

 

“And me, right?” Daniel stops and says. “Chinese food. And me.”

 

God, what an annoying kid.

 

“Yeah, you. Satisfied?” Sungwoon laughs.

 

“Fucking ecstatic.” Daniel laughs back.

 


	6. Epilogue: The Month After

“Daniel,” Jisung says very solemnly. “That is my ankle you are trying to play footsie with.”

 

Sungwoon chokes on air and almost backspaces the words he had been typing on his report.

 

Daniel flushes a little but grins up at Jisung. “Switch place with me, hyung.”

 

“No, we are in public.” Jisung says sternly. It is a Sunday and the weather is too nice for them to be doing their class report indoors so Sungwoon dragged Jisung out to one of the benches on campus park. And of course, Daniel turned up soon.

 

“There is no one around,” Daniel says. “And, I haven’t seen my boyfriend in two days because of this stupid assignment.”

 

“My heart is bleeding.” Jisung snorts.

 

Daniel gives an over dramatic groans and lays his head on the table. “Anyway, I am ruined. Ruined. I spent two nights on this stupid ass choreography assignment and all I have to show for it are these … shitty steps. I am gonna flunk this class and gonna have to drop out. I can’t drop out of college, hyung. How am I supposed to support my cats without a college degree? Do you think I can make enough if I busk in Hongdae?”

 

“You are spiraling.” Sungwoon says before Daniel talks himself through a complete melodrama, and leans over to runs his fingers through Daniel’s head. “Take a break for a while. It is not due until next week, right? You’ll figure it out.”

 

“Hmmm…” Niel just mumbles in response and Sungwoon changes from just running his fingers through his hair to massaging in patterns over his head.

 

“You two are disgusting and I am disgusted.” Jisung suddenly says and grabs his laptop to shift himself to the table on their left.

 

“We are not doing anything.” Sungwoon yells after him, but Daniel just suddenly gets up and whooshes his way into the spot where Jisung vacated.

 

“You really need to get enough sleep,” Sungwoon says once Daniel is close enough for him to notice the emerging dark circles on his face.

 

“Not with Seongwoo hyung practicing for his audition night after night,” Daniel snorts. “If he gets into the show he is gunning for, he owes me like 50% of his pay for just putting up with him over this whole week.”

 

“You want to stay over at mine until Seongwoo is done with whatever he is doing?” Sungwoon asks.

 

“I thought you’d never ask.” Daniel beams up at him and Sungwoon has a niggling feeling that he has been tricked, but well, you cannot trick a person who is willing to be tricked.

 

“I am gonna take a short nap now anyway,” Daniel yawns and puts his head down on the table, grabbing Sungwoon’s hand to put it back on the side of his head. “I thought we’d be doing stuff but you are just doing your report.”

 

“I told you I was going to do my report.” Sungwoon says and flicks his earlobe a little bit. Typing with one hand is difficult, but small sacrifices.

 

“Oh wait, before I forgot.” Daniel leans over the table to get his backpack and pulls out a yuzu yogurt cup. “Got your favorite.”

 

Sungwoon takes the snack and smiles down at Daniel. “Actually, the peach one is my favorite.”

 

Daniel laughs. “Got it. Ha Sungwoon’s favorites: peach yogurt, pizza with no fruits, coffee with four sugars, Chinese food.”

 

“And Kang Daniel.” Sungwoon adds in.

 

“And Kang Daniel.” Daniel gives a wide smile, and leans in to steal a kiss despite the you-are-in-public noises Jisung is making in the background.

 

Yes. Turns out, Kang Daniel is Sungwoon’s favorite after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are here, thank you for reading. The chapter lengths are an inconsistent mess and I probably had about 70 spelling errors in there, but thank you for coming until the end.


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